Immigration Corner | My visa was cancelled, can my husband file for me?

Dear Mrs Walker-Huntington,

In 2018, I applied to a college to study in the United States. When I went to the US Embassy in Jamaica, I was denied the student visa and my B1/B2 visa was revoked, without them giving me any explanation.

In 2019, I got married to a US permanent resident who is in the military. What would be your best advice?

– T.H.

Dear T.H.,

When you applied for your student visa, the US Embassy could have denied it for many reasons. Maybe they thought you could not have afforded the course of study, and room and board, during your study period. Or, maybe they thought that you did not have enough ties to Jamaica so that you would return at the end of your studies.

Unfortunately, the US Embassy does cancel a person’s B1/B2 visa when they apply for another non-immigrant visa – such as a student visa. They do not do this every time because a person can have multiple non-immigrant visas, as they all serve different purposes. It is unfortunate that they did not advise you why they denied your student visa and cancelled your visitor’s visa. I trust that there was no fraud involved when you secured your visitor’s visa that was discovered after the visa was issued.

As you are the spouse of a US resident, your husband is eligible to file a petition for you to live with him in the United States. That process is currently taking about a year to get an interview. The issue you may have is that if the denial and revocation of your non-immigrant visas is because you are inadmissible to the United States, you may have a problem when you appear for the immigrant visa interview on your husband’s petition. If you are inadmissible for permanent residency, the next inquiry would be whether you were eligible for a waiver of that inadmissibility. Immigration fraud is an example of inadmissibility and one for which a waiver would be available in your situation.

Unless you can specify if there is any issue in your background that would make you inadmissible to the United States, you won’t know until your interview. You and your husband should consult with a US immigration attorney for further discussion on your matter, as I am sure you want to be together in America.

Dahlia A. Walker-Huntington, Esq, is a Jamaican-American attorney who practises immigration law in the United States; and family, criminal and international law in Florida. She is a mediator and former special magistrate and hearing officer in Broward County, Florida. info@walkerhuntington.com